Miami-Dade County in Florida, which is 64.3 percent Latino, is experiencing tidal floods because of fossil fuel emissions and the effects of climate change and global warming. Henry Briceño, a geologist and professor at Florida International University's Southeast Environmental Research Center, is concerned about the rising sea level around Miami Beach, especially when, even on a sunny days, seawater flood through the gutters and storm drains. Briceño's concerns led him to independently sample the water, and he found the results to be unpleasant.

Briceño examined samples of the water and discovered it had a high concentration of nutrients such as nitrogen, an indicator that the water's quality was poor. Briceño has not begun to test for bacteria, but he said he is certain that he'll find some. Before settling in Miami 12 years ago, he was a teacher for 30 years in his native Venezuela. In his relatively short residency in Miami, he witnessed the change to the South Florida landscape, and it distresses him.

Twenty thousand years ago, there was a glaciation period that was characterized by colder temperatures, and the sea level was 300 feet below the actual one; there was a 300-foot wall of earth between Miami and the Bahamas, reaching the top of Biscayne Bay with trees, rivers and a waterfall running down to the ocean. During the last interglacial period, 100,000 years ago, the period was characterized by warm weather, melting Antarctic glaciers and rising seas. The climate changes occur in cycles, lasting thousands of years.

The natural cycles have become accelerated, however, by human activity. This greatly affects Miami, which is one of the areas in the U.S. that's most vulnerable and likely to endure severe damage because of rising sea levels, according to a recent study by the National Climate Assessment. Two groups of scientists from NASA and the University of Washington recently concluded that the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet has started, which will lead to the sea levels escalate sooner than predicted. Some coastal cities are already seeing a 13-foot sea level increase.

The city of Miami Beach has made rising sea level an urgent issue, and the city is currently focused on a $400 million project where they will dismantle the sheets, install pumps and piping to help ease drainage from the tidal floods. The project should stay the issue for the next 40-50 years, according to Miami Beach city manager.

Also to counteract the issues, delegates from South Florida visited the Netherlands, where 26 percent of the land lies below sea level. They had hoped to mimic the Netherlands' coping and water management techniques. However, because South Florida sits atop porous, permeable limestone, which absorbs water and permits seawater access to the streets, the Netherlands' methods proved ineffective.

Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that human activity is responsible for the warming and fossil fuel emission. Yet, local and national legislators are unable to agree on how to tackle the issue — or what is at the root of it. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, stated that Miami Beach was "ground zero" for sea level rise, and he endorses efforts to reduce carbon emissions even if it comes at an economic cost. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, on the other hand, claimed that human activity isn't the cause of dramatic climate changes. He also doesn't support laws that raise the cost of fossil fuel because China and India produces exuberant amounts of carbon fuel without implementing comparable restrictions on fossil fuel.

George Gonzalez, a political science professor at the University of Miami, specified that local lawmakers need to be aggressive about limiting carbon emissions but acknowledges that the national Republican Party makes it difficult for individuals from their party to support the regulation of carbon emission. Also, legislators may believe that they might destabilize Miami's economy and South Florida's lucrative real estate market by drawing negative attention to it. Politicians are being accused of a lack of action and denial, based on presumptions that convince them that they are more knowledgeable than climatologists, geologists and geographers.

The economy and immigration are the pressing issues to Hispanics in the Latino-heavy Miami-Dade County since Miami leads the nation with the highest immigrant population and its unemployment rate is at 6.7 percent, just slightly higher than the national average of 6.3 percent. Nonetheless, many public officials have decided to act on behalf of the Latino community and joined together in a partisan way to Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact in 2010, which includes the counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach.

"We thought that — politics aside — we're all in this together," said Deede Weithorn, the Miami Beach commissioner and past president of the Miami-Dade League of Cities. "I wonder if politicians in Washington know how complicated this is. Our ecosystem is so delicate. The good news is we get it."

Related